FCP is so kind, it always gives me extra frames!

[Ben Sliker]

So, i'm currently working on a 24p PRO RES 422 timeline, but I've experienced this in pretty much every other format as well.

I check the timecode at the end of my FCP timeline, in this case it's 5:59:20 (DVXfests, YAY!), but then when I export a mezzanine PRO RES file (or DVCPRO, or dv, doesn't matter), QT always says the file is longer, for our current example, 6:00.27.

Does anyone know how my file grows by 10-15 frames after export? Something I've been meaning to ask for years... just hasn't bothered me enough until now.

oh, and i'm using FCP 6.

 

[Tim Joy]

Sounds like your prefs might be on Non-drop frame TC?

If I remember right, it's +2 frames every 2 min, which would make perfect sense in this case.

 

[bigbossbmb]

Yeah, 23.976 sequences are NDF timecode... so the 5:59:20 is your length in NDF TC. 6:00:27 is your playback TRT.... the :27 is 27/100th of a second, not the 27th frame. QT is weird like that.

PS it's 2 frames every minute except every 10th minute.

 

[Tim Joy]

Yeah, 23.976 sequences are NDF timecode... so the 5:59:20 is your length in NDF TC. 6:00:27 is your playback TRT.... the :27 is 27/100th of a second, not the 27th frame. QT is weird like that.

PS it's 2 frames every minute except every 10th minute.

That's really weird. Maybe it's a new QT 'feature' that I haven't come across because I'm still on the old version. I've always gone right up to the 6:00:00 mark for entries in the dvxuser fests and QT says the same time, and they're always 23.98 projects.

But you make a good point because I've only ever heard 29.97 referred to as DF or NDF, not 23.98

Note to self: Don't trust your timeline time. :badputer:

 

[kgimedia]

The even more confusing thing for most people is that if you use a counter or stopwatch they are exactly the same time. Just counted different.